ABSTRACT
Nigeria being the world's largest producer of cassava, and both its production and consumption whether in raw or processed form have increased recently. Unfortunately, the rising consumption of this crop has led to an increase in its peels, which if not properly disposed or recycled, would pose huge environment challenges and health implications. Samples of the cassava peel utilized in this study were obtained from Uselu, Benin City. Preparation of the cassava peel and the characterization of the biochar were carried out. The carbonization process was done at different temperatures ranging from 250℃ – 450℃, ash content, bulk density, pH, CEC, percentage yield, moisture content, and proximate elemental analysis were done on the biochar using standard methods. The biochar was characterized in terms of TGA, SEM, FTIR, XRD and BET. Carbonization process at temperature range of 250℃ – 450℃ gave percentage yield range of 29.70 - 75.78%. The mean values of pH, bulk density, ash content, and CEC ranged from 6.13 ± 0.05 to 7.90 ± 0.02, 0.46 ± 0.08 to 0.27 ± 0.00g/mL, 6.60 ± 0.11 to 20.10 ± 0.15%, and 86.87 ± 0.07 to 99.28 to ± 0.02cmol/kg respectively. FTIR analysis revealed that the cassava peel biochar consists of similar functional groups, such as OH, C=C, N-H and carboxylic. XRF analysis revealed that the elemental composition of the biochar consist mainly of O2, K, and Ca with few traces of Al, Si, P, S, Ti, Ru, Rh, and Sn. XRD analysis of the biochar indicates that it contains higher percentage of graphite compare to other constituents. The BET surface area and pore sizes of the biochar obtained were 189.3 m2/g and 2.4 nm respectively. SEM micrographs revealed that the biochar have rough and porous surfaces. The TGA results showed a weight % loss range of 77 – 350%.
